News

Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of their parentage with ISP partner Virgin Media (VMO2) and uses the same build teams, has today revealed that the roll-out of their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network has reached its coverage target of 2 million premises on time and is now moving on with the next phase. Just to recap. Back in 2022 Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners setup nexfibre as a new £4.5bn joint venture (here),...

Network operator CityFibre has this morning announced that they’ve begun the roll-out phase of their £108m state-aid supported Project Gigabit contract for the West & East Sussex (Lot 16 & 1) area in England. This will extend their 10Gbps capable FTTP broadband ISP network to an additional 57,000 hard-to-reach rural premises. The figures given in Cityfibre’s announcement today differ from those they gave when the contract was announced in February 2024 (here), which specified a...

News  The FCC says the replacement process is more urgent than ever in the wake of the ‘Salt Typhoon’ cyberattacks late last year  The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is pushing ahead with plans for a new spectrum auction to help pay for the removal and replacement of Chinese telecoms equipment from US networks.   The Rip and Replace program, established in 2019, is an initiative by the FCC designed to help secure the US telco infrastructure by removing and replacing high-risk...

News  The new wholesale arm will serve 250 telecommunications providers and resellers in Germany, and over 900 international customers  Deutsche Telekom has announced that it will consolidate its national and international wholesale activities into one entity, named ‘T Wholesale’.  The company says that the move “is intended to provide clients with streamlined solutions that address needs both within Germany as well as globally, reflecting the growing demand for integrated telecommunications...

News The data breach saw the personal details of 79 million T-Mobile customers compromised The US state of Washington is suing T-Mobile over a massive data breach that affected millions of the state’s residents. Back in 2021, T-Mobile revealed it had suffered an enormous data breach that saw the personal information of around 79 million of customers and potential customers stolen. Details compromised included customer names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license...

News The operator says the agent can take proactive action to help customers with planning, execution, reminders and advice in their daily lives SK Telecom (SKT) will bring its AI agent ‘Aster’ to the US market as early as March, the company has announced at CES. Aster is SKT’s newly developed AI agent, which the operator says can go beyond merely answering questions for customers and instead can perform “essential tasks in daily life”. The agent operates much like a personal assistant, not...

Podcasts The marketplace is changing fast. But is there still a role for the rural ISP in tomorrow’s digital infrastructure? We’re joined by Steve Smith, the CRO of LiveOak Fiber, to discuss. By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities Catch the full episode here: LiveOak Fiber has been expanding their footprint across rural North Florida and Southern Georgia. Yet, according to Steve Smith, the internet service provider’s chief revenue officer, the company maintains distinct advantages by keeping...

For the first time since 2021, the final quarter of 2024 was not the most prolific period of the year for cyberattacks. The attack rate peaked at 2,192 per day in the third quarter of 2024 before declining to 2,063 per day in Q4. Despite this reduction, the final three months of 2024 were only the third quarter on record when the average number of cyberattacks encountered by UK businesses exceeded 2,000 a day. Previously, 2023 was the worst year on record for cyberattacks on UK businesses,...

The Comms Council UK, which represents the United Kingdom’s national Unified Communications and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) phone industry, has today announced that they’ve appointed new Chair, Tracey Wright, to replace Eli Katz, who, after 20 long years of service, stepped down as Chair on the 6th of January 2025. Tracey has been selected by CCUK’s Council in light of her past contributions to the association and industry. These include leading CCUK’s Industry Developments Working...

Little-known fixed wireless ISP Kijoma Broadband (Kijoma Solutions), which generally covers rural parts of West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire in England, appears to have vanished (including email and website) after appearing to suffer a service outage that started just before 9am yesterday morning. Firstly, there’s a good chance that many of our current readers might never have heard of Kijoma, which wouldn’t be surprising as the last time we had anything to report on them was a decade ago. But...